Well, it appears that I’ve gotten lax with my exercising.

I had set an exercise routine for myself in lieu of going to the gym. What I used to do was wake up early in the morning, and spend a half-hour on the elliptical in my home office. While it was regular exercise, there were a couple of disadvantages. The first was that I wasn’t watching what I was eating, and so I’d be caught snacking, having desserts, and eating generally fattening foods. It didn’t help that I wasn’t drinking as much water as I should. The second was that the amount of time I was spending on the elliptical wasn’t coming anywhere near to what I did when I went to the gym, and I was missing out on weight training to boot.

The final straw came when I realized I needed to buy new pants, and that I needed to go a size higher on club shirts. Something needed to be done.

This week, I’ve started on a new regiment. I’ve cut out most snacks and desserts. Desserts will be relegated to a single splurge night a week. I’ve also started drinking far more water than I did before. I’ve also been eating less red meat. As far as exercise goes, I’m going to the gym four times a week. My routine consists of sixty minutes on a stationary bike (set to random hill), weight training on specific body areas (three sets of twelve reps on each machine), and abdominal crunches (three sets of twenty). I’m hoping the combination of more exercise plus a slightly better diet will help me shed some weight before the wedding date. I don’t want to look too fat for the pictures. :-)

I’m also hoping that another thing I’m doing will help in getting the weight down. One thing I’ve never been very open about (unless I absolutely had to) was the fact that I couldn’t swim. Rather, I could fake it a little, but attempts to formally teach me as a child never went anywhere. I couldn’t tread water, and I definitely didn’t feel comfortable trying to swim. Let’s not even talk about how I’d react when in the deep end of a pool…

The problem with that is that Jennifer LOVES the water, and would live in it full-time if she could. As a result, I don’t feel like I can properly join in when she does things like go to the pool, because I’m not that comfortable with it. It’ll get worse as time goes on, as she loves to do things like snorkeling, and I’d simply not be able to take part.

It’s not fair, so I’ve decided to do something about it. I’m taking swimming lessons twice a week.

We found the place I go to, The Aquatic Academy, through our friend Julie. We had gone there for water aerobics, and the teacher gave me a few pointers on swimming while I was there. I was impressed enough where I’ve been going back for proper lessons. So far I can now tread water (though I’m out of shape enough where I can’t keep it up for long), actually do breast strokes and front crawls, and can swim underwater. I’ve even been able to open my eyes underwater. That’s huge, because the last time I tried was when I last had lessons in my childhood, the water burned and stung my eyes so badly I’ve associated having my eyes open underwater with pain ever since. I’ve been happy with my progress, as has Jennifer.

I think I’ll be learning how to dive at the next lesson. That’s one skill that I’ve always been envious of others for, because as fun as it looks, in the past I would have panicked being in the deep end of the pool. As for now, well… I’m definitely looking forward to it, though it remains to be seen how I’ll react in the deep end. We’ll see, I suppose. :-)

In the end, though, even if I wasn’t doing well at learning, it’s not a lost cause. It’s extra exercise for me, and it’s definitely getting me more used to being in the water. I’m definitely hoping I’ll get to the point where I can do all the same water things Jennifer likes to do… and maybe by that point, I’ll be slimmed down and in better shape where I can enjoy it to its fullest. :-)

It’s hard to believe it’s been two years. On one hand, it seems like a long time. On the other hand, it seems like we’ve always known each other.

A lot has happened in those two years. We’ve been on numerous vacations together, especially to places I never thought I would go visit like New Orleans, Colorado, and Disney World. We’ve been to places and events that I normally would not, like Pac-Man Fever Fridays at Joystix, concerts like Depeche Mode, and plays/musicals in the theatre district. I even moved in with her over a year ago.

To top it off, we’re getting married in a couple of months. Wow.

I wouldn’t trade it for anything, either. It’s amazing how in sync we are, to the point where on more than one occasion we’ve been known to speak simultaneously or come up with the same ideas independently. It’s also great how much she puts up with my geekiness; my home office now is a testament to it, with gaming and sci-fi posters and memorabilia scattered all over the place. :-)

To celebrate our anniversary, we went back to where we had our first date: BJ’s in Pearland. Afterwards, we stopped by a redbox to pick up Source Code; after trading anniversary cards at home, we watched the movie. :-)

Happy anniversary, honey. Here’s hoping the next fifty or so years are as fun as the first two. :-)

I happened to mention in the previous entry that sometimes Midway Games sometimes happened to have odd promotional items to go with their games. While I worked closely with some people from the public relations department at the time and have nothing to say but good things about them, I sometimes privately questioned some of the decisions of the marketing department. However, the only time I encountered a real “WTF” is after one Gamers’ Day event, when I received a “thank you” item that had to be expensive.

In early 2007, I had attended the Midway Gamers’ Day event in Las Vegas. For this event, I was covering the announcement that Mortal Kombat: Armageddon would be coming to the Nintendo Wii. The event was a more or less quiet one for me, as all I needed to do was tape a presentation and then interview Ed Boon and Shaun Himmerick. In any event, it was a pretty slow year as far as Mortal Kombat was concerned, as there wasn’t a major release planned for that year. For a month or two after the event, things went about as slow as one might imagine during the downtime between releases.

A couple of months after the event, I was at work when I got a call from my father. He told me that something had arrived via FedEx from a company that I knew Midway did marketing work with. I certainly wasn’t expecting anything from Midway, and was even more confused when Dad said that it was something very heavy. So, that evening, when I got home, the first thing I did was get the FedEx box from where Dad had put it. He was right; it WAS very heavy. Even more confused, I opened the box, and was shocked to see what was inside.

Yes, that is a poker chip set box with the Midway logo embossed on it.

After I got over my shock, I went ahead and opened the box. The chip set was of casino quality. In addition, the chips and cards were labeled with the logos of games shown at the Gamers’ Day event. The cards had the logo of John Woo’s Stranglehold on it, while the chips had the logos for The Wheelman, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Hour of Victory, Blacksite: Area 51, and John Woo’s Stranglehold. Whatever Midway paid for these, it could not have been cheap.

The chip set came with a form letter that thanked me for coming to Gamers’ Day, and stating how much they hoped I would help get the word out about the games announced and shown. Once I looked it over, I put everything back in the shipping box, and put it in a safe place. I’ve only rarely taken it out of its storage place since then, and it has not (and will not) be unwrapped for use. This is definitely a collector’s item.

The thing is, though, that this is an example of bad decisions that I think helped sink the company. I mean, hell, I appreciate that they sent me this item and I wasn’t about to send it back, but still… this was a LOT of money for Midway to spend, and at the time Midway was really starting to hurt. In my opinion, they needed to put this kind of effort far more into their game design process. They already had a policy of “you ship on this date, no exceptions”, which led to unfinished games being released. That of course led to games that should have done well in stores getting panned. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was easily the weakest of that generation of Mortal Kombat games, and Hour of Victory (which I thought looked horribly derivative at Gamers’ Day) was released irreparably broken. In the end, Midway went bankrupt and the Mortal Kombat assets were purchased by Warner Bros.

These days marketing for games like Mortal Kombat seems to be done smarter. Warner Bros. has more money to spend than Midway did, but they’re putting it to much better and efficient use. To my knowledge, freebies like the books and the poker chip set are out. While I will miss stuff like that… it’s good to know the focus is back where it should be: the games.

As one might imagine, my bookshelves tend to be a bit eclectic. Admittedly, most of the books I own fall under the categories of science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Still, almost everything in the bookshelves is of value to me, if only sentimental (gifts from friends, for example). However, there does tend to be the odd book or two that is just weird for me. While looking for a book to read the other day out of the ones I haven’t, I chanced upon one book that I’d been meaning to read. It’s still an odd duck for me, and I figured I would share its history.

The book is called 7 Deadly Wonders, and it’s written by an Australian named Matthew Reilly. The title is the US-only title; the original title is Seven Ancient Wonders. I guess it’s another of those examples of marketers pandering to the American Idiot, who would also wonder what the hell a “philosopher’s stone” is. In any event, the book itself is rather innocuous; it details the story of several groups of people trying to harness the incredible power of an ancient artifact sealed away by Alexander the Great. Pretty pulp-sounding stuff, really, but not something I would normally pick up in the bookstore.

I got it at a Midway Games media event.

It was actually at the 2006 Midway Winter Gamers’ Day event. Despite the name, Gamers’ Day was for the gaming news media; gaming news sites would be invited to see announcements about upcoming Midway game releases. I was there on behalf of Mortal Kombat Online, as Midway was announcing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon at the event. The event started with numerous presentations. Once the presentations were over, we were essentially free to do whatever we wanted, but the main draw was that several of the announced games were playable in some form or fashion on the event floor. One of the playable games was a game called Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War. In a sense, the game was your bog-standard PC RTS along the lines of Age of Empires. Essentially, you control one of several ancient armies, and attempt to defeat your enemies. The catch that was supposed to make Rise and Fall stand out was that during the battles, you could take direct control of your army’s “general” (Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, etc.), at which point the game switched to a third-person action game.

In any event, when I approached where the PCs playing Rise and Fall were set up, I noticed something curious. There was a large stack of hardcover books, free for anyone to pick up. So, I wandered over, and picked one up; the book was one I had never heard of called 7 Deadly Wonders. I read the description on the inner flap, but was still a bit confused as to why they would be given away at a Midway event. It was then that I saw a sign saying that it was a promotion for Rise and Fall. I flipped to the back of the book, and saw an ad for the game there. I shrugged, and placed the book in my laptop bag. It struck me as being a rather odd bit of cross-promotion, as there really was no link between the book and the game other than the fact that both books involved Alexander the Great. They didn’t even take place in anywhere close to the same time periods, either, as Seven Ancient Wonders takes place in modern times.

Ah, well. It certainly wasn’t the only time Midway did some cross-promotion. It was simply one of the stranger ones. I actually never saw any more of the book/game promotion outside of that event, so I don’t know if the copy of the book that made it to US shelves contained the ad. I know I didn’t see anything in any bookstores about it. As for the game itself, it was released to little fanfare and disappeared quietly. According to Wikipedia, it was eventually re-released as a free ad-supported version sponsored by the US Air Force. I didn’t hear anything about that at the time of re-release, either.

The book still sits on my bookshelf to this day. Perhaps I’ll finally get around to reading it soon. :-)

A number of my friends will tell you that one of my favorite types of games are trivia games. I don’t get to play them as often as I would like, but whenever I see a trivia game, whether it be something on Twitter or a trivia bot on an IRC channel, I’ll be likely to get drawn in. It helps that my brain is a storehouse of useless information; more than once Jennifer has asked me a trivia question, and then after I answer correctly, ask, “How the hell do you even know that?”

Well, if you’ve ever been to certain bars in the US (especially ones like Buffalo Wild Wings), you’ve probably noticed an electronic trivia and poker system on some of the TV screens. It’s through a service called Buzztime, and as you might imagine, I tend to get playing as soon as I enter. It helps that they have an app for the iPhone that allows me to play without needing one of their Playmaker units.

I’ve actually entered into a kind of routine. On Wednesdays at 7 PM CDT, they have a game called “Sci-Files”. It’s what it sounds like: it’s a fifteen question game that focuses entirely on science fiction and fantasy. Whenever I can, I go to the BWW in Pearland on Wednesday nights and play. Jennifer was good enough to humor me tonight and we went over to play. I’ve yet to crack the top 20 nationwide in a Sci-Files game, yet I’ve come as close as in the mid-20s. Tonight I didn’t even make that; I ranked around 100-105. Still, considering that’s nationwide and out of 5000 or so people, that’s pretty good.

I did see evidence that I’ve been playing quite a bit, though. At the end of the game, before they give the network rankings, they show the top scores for the game from the past year. I hold the top four spots. I’d say I should probably take a long hiatus at some point, but I really do want to make the top 20 at some point. It’s not that anyone other than me and Jennifer would care. It’d be a nice accomplishment, is all.

Ah, well. Hopefully it’ll happen soon.

I posted in an earlier post that I had been working on a bit of Mortal Kombat fan fiction called “Dracula Killer”. I had written a scene and thought that would be enough, but Jennifer and others convinced me that there had to be more to the story. So, from there, I brainstormed, came up with an expanded plotline. However, the story mode in the new game clarified some previously missing information from Mortal Kombat 3 that ended up being counter to my own assumptions in the story. So, I ended up giving up, and I posted the original onto the fan submission system on Mortal Kombat Online.

What I didn’t expect was pretty much everyone who commented also asking for more, despite the continuity problem. So, I went ahead and decided to finish the story.

As a bit of background, I had thought about a couple of different “scenarios” involving Mortal Kombat characters, and one I kept coming back to was the character of Kurtis Stryker meeting up with a vampire. (Vampires were introduced to the series in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.) A while ago, I had discussed story concepts with my friend Becky, and she told me I should put some of them down in writing. While I wanted to, I wanted to warm up with something else. So, I wrote the “Dracula Killer” story out, not expecting people to want more out of it.

I really should thank Jennifer for helping me flesh out the expanded storyline and for supporting me in this endeavor. Crow and Becky were also very supportive as well, and I’m thankful to them, too. :-)

As for the story itself, you can read it on MK Online (link goes to the first part), or if you like, you can read the whole story in a PDF file (formatted to MLA short story guidelines).

• Mortal Kombat – Dracula Killer

I had never actually been one for decorating my work area. For the longest time, the only decoration I had in my cubicle was a Pessimism desktopper from Despair, Inc. Some months back, though, I was trying to decide what to do with a couple of items Jennifer got for me. One was a small Transformers Megatron figure, and the other was a Pez dispenser shaped like the Riddler. Then, after buying a diecast Recognizer from Tron: Legacy, it suddenly occurred to me what to do with them.

I started putting them on my cubicle wall. As for how it looks now…

The figures are usually the first thing someone notices when they come to my cubicle. At least one person has since commented that it helps make my cube look like a “geek paradise” or something similar. Jennifer doesn’t understand why I don’t remove them from the packaging; I really don’t have a good reason myself, other than it’s easier to keep them on the wall and also makes it easier to keep everything together.

Also, it’s amusing that some of the figures are actually gifts. One of my coworkers bought me the Yoda figure after lamenting the fact that I didn’t have any Star Wars figures up. Jennifer bought me the diecast Batmobile when we went to an arcade expo back in October. The Rubik’s Cube was a prize for getting the high score in Ms. Pac-Man at one of my friend Eric’s game nights.

I definitely intend on expanding the collection, but I’m a bit choosy as to what to put up there. I’m waiting until Transformers: Dark of the Moon toys start becoming widely available before expanding the Transformers section, for example, as I want to put a Shockwave figure up there. In addition, I’d like to put a Mortal Kombat figure or two up, provided they’re not too expensive and the plans for new action figures actually do go ahead. Otherwise, I’m not sure what else I’d put up there.

We’ll see what becomes of it. :-)

It’s kind of funny, in a way.

When I started blogging, I did so using LiveJournal. I mainly set it up to keep up with a friend’s LiveJournal (which was pretty locked down), and eventually started using it myself. Then, back in 2005, my friend Sean introduced me to WordPress and I started using that on my own site for blogging purposes. I still kept my LiveJournal, and used it as a mirror for my site blog. Most of my friends still used LJ and would comment on the LJ mirror as opposed to on my site itself.

As anything, though, things changed. There’s really only one active person on my LiveJournal friends list, and almost everything she posts is mirrored elsewhere, like her Twitter and Facebook. Also, almost everyone who is friends with me on LiveJournal follows me on Twitter or is a friend on Facebook, so they get notifications whenever I post a blog entry. So, really, there’s no point in keeping the LiveJournal active anymore.

So, this will be the last blog entry cross-posted to LiveJournal. As soon as this posts, I’ll be deleting the plugin that allows my site to post blog entries over to my LiveJournal. If I use LiveJournal at all, it’ll be to read the aforementioned friends’ posts when she has something to say that doesn’t fit in a Twitter or Facebook post. There’s no need for me to mirror my blog to it anymore.

It’s a shame, really. I used to really like LiveJournal. Still, its time has come and gone, and I really don’t need it anymore.

This was originally posted on Mortal Kombat Online’s forum. I’m reposting it here in case my friends might be interested in what was going on yesterday. You can read the original thread here.

Hey everyone.

So, we were down for approximately 18 hours. The downtime was due to our hosting provider migrating the site over to a newer, faster server. The site should now actually be more responsive and you should hopefully see less “server is busy” errors.

As for why it took so long and why we picked now, well.. there’s a story behind that. I’m putting it out here, in the interest of full disclosure, plus to get this annoyance off my chest.

A few years back, we had an extended downtime where we were down for about a week. During that downtime, we had been moved to another server by our hosting provider, due to the fact that the hard drives had failed on the old one. Shortly after the upgrade, I noticed that there was a problem with the motherboard. It wasn’t a show-stopper, but fixing it required some jury-rigging. The jury-rigging held up pretty well.

However, with the release of the new date coming closer and closer, I started realizing how much traffic we were getting and that we could do with slimming down system usage. For that, I wanted to get rid of the jury-rigging. So, we asked our hosting provider for a replacement motherboard. They responded yesterday by offering to move us to a new server.

I agreed, thinking they were going to take the hard drives from the old server and put them in the new server. Instead, they took the old drives and made them slaves to the existing drives.

It also didn’t help that when I logged into the server, I realized they put a completely different distribution of Linux than what we were using before. I called them and griped, because at this time I really don’t have time to learn a new distribution of Linux and configure it for our environment. They agreed to install our normal distribution, and did so.

… and when I logged in, I found they installed NONE of the software we needed. There wasn’t a web server, a mail server, or anything. By this point I was tired of depending on the hosting company and decided to fix it myself. To give a comparison, it was the equivalent of someone handing me a machine with Windows 7 Starter Edition and saying it was ready for use, without any of the necessary software. It took several hours, and by the time I went to bed at 1 AM CDT, I had everything but web services working.

Fortunately, when I got up this morning, I realized where I went wrong on the web services and got those fixed too.

Right now, I realize there are a couple of bugs in the site. For example, the online list isn’t working. However, I will be working with CCShadow to try and get them fixed as soon as we can.

Thank you for your patience while we get everything back to normal. :-)